If I am out of the teaching job, I know exactly what to work as.... a letter writer (is there a specific name for such an occupation?).
My service shall range from swooning love letters to crushing "declination" letters. I had the chance to indite an email for my sis who was woo-ed by this guy. Cognizant that she would still like to maintain friendship with him, my masterpiece had to ensure that it has the right level of tone and consistency. So this was what I churned out within 6 minutes for my sis.
--------------------
Hello XXX,
Sorry for this late reply. Your email came as a surprise and I thought it deserved some thought in replying. Plus I was away on training earlier so I did not want to give you an email that was rushed through.
As you rightfully put it, a relationship is more than just feelings. It also has to include considerations of distance and other factors. Most importantly, a successful relationship entails some level of friendship in order to understand each other better at first.
Though I am officially single, I am also looking to start a relationship with this friend in the church whom we have mutual feelings for. I cherish your chivalry and helpfulness which are very positive qualities. And I always believe that God has made plans for everyone. Though it may not work out between the two of us this time round, I'm sure there is a girl out there who is worth every your time and care and appreciate those qualities enough to want to see them from you for the rest of her life.
I'm sorry if I have disappointed you. However, please continue this wonderful friendship as we had for the past few months for I cherish wonderful friends like you.
Best,
ABC
-------------------------------------------------
My sis showed her friend who later commented that my style of writing is similar to another friend of theirs who is an English major. When my sis told me this, I thought I was on cloud million already
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The pantry world of our own
A recent photograph tagged in facebook invited one inquisitve question of why new T-chirs have their tables in the pantry. To this, the 三脚猫 replied that contrary to what she thinks, the pantry in my schoooooo is actually the place to be if you want your working life to be imbued with laughter and good-natured jokes.
At least this has been the case for the past 4 weeks for me since being posted to do my T-ching. Today, my colleagues (all N*E, relief, practic^m and contract) decided to go for our nights out despite having done so the day before. Mr Y who had left his relief on Monday to do his reservist in the police force managed to find time to join us to catch up the happenings of the week. It transpired that just two days ago, some students have spotted him in his "Mr Policeman" uniform, and Mr Y had wished a hole would open to swallow him up.
Mr O and I had been irritating Miss M with our mock Malaysian accent. We managed to perfect some simple sentences, particularly putting the accent on the word "到". Seizing every opportunities, sentences that begin with "累到.......", "气到......", "饿到.....", 坏到....." dotted our conversations. Miss M was clearly unimpressed. So was her partner in crime, Miss C. (Incidentally Miss C teaches Chinese).
I am not the only 猫 family around. Once Mr O remarked to Miss M in their usual banter session, "老虎不发威, 当我是病猫啊". Aiyah.. but with his perpetual 唏唏哈哈 demeanour, we have always treated Mr O as a 病猫, and a really 病猫 at that........ until.... wah...
One day, in the canteen, we were having our lunch together, we heard an explosion with some reverberations that ripped through the air. Patently, it was not the sound of an inflated drink packet that was stomped on. Curiosity killed Mr O (the 病猫), the 三脚猫, and all the other lunch kakis. Miss M was quite concerned that the boys over at the corner was endangering others' life and urged us to go over and check things out. We were on two minds when...
a rabbit came.. or rather, this lanky boy walked past. Mr O called him out and made a motion for him to come over. With that simple smile plastered on his face, he advanced. Who would have known that the next few seconds the 三脚猫, Miss M, Mr Y and Miss N were to miss a heartbeat when Mr O transformed into a 老虎 and with an enveloping voice that has a surround system effect, he roared "Eh! You tell me what's happening over there". If the air had just been a little more moist, an electrical discharge would have jumped.
The roar brought the hapless boy swiftly to his knees, to which he stammered "I.... I..'m from sec 3A, and these boys over there.... they sec four one... take some dry ice and put in bottle then explode..." Clearly dissociating himself from those gangs of sec 4, the rabbit appeared just so small, so dimunitive.
"Ok, you can go", commandered Mr O, the ex-army officer.
Stunned.
"Wah... Mr O, never see you turn into a 老虎 leh".... and those past few weeks of boisterous kids who had been stretching you and you still believed never in raising voice.. First time leh.... Around the table, the disconcerted ones acquiesced almost immediately.
----------------------------------------
We must be getting extra high today when we decided to go to the city for dinner. Mr O (the-saintly病猫-who-refused-an-MC), and I, shared two $1 durians before leaving, and our blood was charged with glucose. Of course, Miss M grabbed this opportunity to say our mouths stank with methane. Mr O bore the greater brunt of the impact since he had been rubbing the wrong way up with Miss M most of the time, while the 三脚猫 has been completely snowed under work most of the time.
Anyway, we settled for a simple meal after a plea by Mr O to watch the budget and the body. Truth is he's more concerned about the former. Nicely ensconced in our seats, we began our confession sessions about our impressions of one another, peppered with banters and recounting of wonderful incidents. Turned out I am the most judgemental! Hahaha.... But they got their way when they had been relating me to Kim Jong Il, an MP aide, a "celebrity", and many others. To them, the three-legged cat has a common face just like items on a pasar malam!
Miss N brought her Taiwanese bf to join us later, and poor boy, he was completely clueless as we launched into our own world of jokes since the jokes were all very contextual. The classic ones are: Mr O's elaborated analogy of riding a roller coaster to the apex when the teachers croned "是你!! 是你!! 梦见的就是你!" in 甜蜜蜜; Miss M's in-your-face remarks (particularly the spelling of curiosity where she left no mercy in persecuting brutally all those who had wronged her) with her accompanying drama mama histrionics; Mr Y's tales of the light and dark as a teacher of a normal acad class and subsequently as a ma2 da2 who had to jargar some quarelling ah sohs and emo kids; Mr C's insinuation of the vertically challenged nature of Mr Ong; Miss N's quiet but fiercely determined nature of not letting the sisterhood down when Miss C and Miss M combined powers to put down the ma2 da2, the saint-who-never-MC, and the 三脚猫.
But it was a great night. Pity that tomorrow Mr O and Miss M are going to leave the school to start their NIE course. Left only Miss N, Miss C and the 三脚猫. Sighhhhh.......
At least this has been the case for the past 4 weeks for me since being posted to do my T-ching. Today, my colleagues (all N*E, relief, practic^m and contract) decided to go for our nights out despite having done so the day before. Mr Y who had left his relief on Monday to do his reservist in the police force managed to find time to join us to catch up the happenings of the week. It transpired that just two days ago, some students have spotted him in his "Mr Policeman" uniform, and Mr Y had wished a hole would open to swallow him up.
Mr O and I had been irritating Miss M with our mock Malaysian accent. We managed to perfect some simple sentences, particularly putting the accent on the word "到". Seizing every opportunities, sentences that begin with "累到.......", "气到......", "饿到.....", 坏到....." dotted our conversations. Miss M was clearly unimpressed. So was her partner in crime, Miss C. (Incidentally Miss C teaches Chinese).
I am not the only 猫 family around. Once Mr O remarked to Miss M in their usual banter session, "老虎不发威, 当我是病猫啊". Aiyah.. but with his perpetual 唏唏哈哈 demeanour, we have always treated Mr O as a 病猫, and a really 病猫 at that........ until.... wah...
One day, in the canteen, we were having our lunch together, we heard an explosion with some reverberations that ripped through the air. Patently, it was not the sound of an inflated drink packet that was stomped on. Curiosity killed Mr O (the 病猫), the 三脚猫, and all the other lunch kakis. Miss M was quite concerned that the boys over at the corner was endangering others' life and urged us to go over and check things out. We were on two minds when...
a rabbit came.. or rather, this lanky boy walked past. Mr O called him out and made a motion for him to come over. With that simple smile plastered on his face, he advanced. Who would have known that the next few seconds the 三脚猫, Miss M, Mr Y and Miss N were to miss a heartbeat when Mr O transformed into a 老虎 and with an enveloping voice that has a surround system effect, he roared "Eh! You tell me what's happening over there". If the air had just been a little more moist, an electrical discharge would have jumped.
The roar brought the hapless boy swiftly to his knees, to which he stammered "I.... I..'m from sec 3A, and these boys over there.... they sec four one... take some dry ice and put in bottle then explode..." Clearly dissociating himself from those gangs of sec 4, the rabbit appeared just so small, so dimunitive.
"Ok, you can go", commandered Mr O, the ex-army officer.
Stunned.
"Wah... Mr O, never see you turn into a 老虎 leh".... and those past few weeks of boisterous kids who had been stretching you and you still believed never in raising voice.. First time leh.... Around the table, the disconcerted ones acquiesced almost immediately.
----------------------------------------
We must be getting extra high today when we decided to go to the city for dinner. Mr O (the-saintly病猫-who-refused-an-MC), and I, shared two $1 durians before leaving, and our blood was charged with glucose. Of course, Miss M grabbed this opportunity to say our mouths stank with methane. Mr O bore the greater brunt of the impact since he had been rubbing the wrong way up with Miss M most of the time, while the 三脚猫 has been completely snowed under work most of the time.
Anyway, we settled for a simple meal after a plea by Mr O to watch the budget and the body. Truth is he's more concerned about the former. Nicely ensconced in our seats, we began our confession sessions about our impressions of one another, peppered with banters and recounting of wonderful incidents. Turned out I am the most judgemental! Hahaha.... But they got their way when they had been relating me to Kim Jong Il, an MP aide, a "celebrity", and many others. To them, the three-legged cat has a common face just like items on a pasar malam!
Miss N brought her Taiwanese bf to join us later, and poor boy, he was completely clueless as we launched into our own world of jokes since the jokes were all very contextual. The classic ones are: Mr O's elaborated analogy of riding a roller coaster to the apex when the teachers croned "是你!! 是你!! 梦见的就是你!" in 甜蜜蜜; Miss M's in-your-face remarks (particularly the spelling of curiosity where she left no mercy in persecuting brutally all those who had wronged her) with her accompanying drama mama histrionics; Mr Y's tales of the light and dark as a teacher of a normal acad class and subsequently as a ma2 da2 who had to jargar some quarelling ah sohs and emo kids; Mr C's insinuation of the vertically challenged nature of Mr Ong; Miss N's quiet but fiercely determined nature of not letting the sisterhood down when Miss C and Miss M combined powers to put down the ma2 da2, the saint-who-never-MC, and the 三脚猫.
But it was a great night. Pity that tomorrow Mr O and Miss M are going to leave the school to start their NIE course. Left only Miss N, Miss C and the 三脚猫. Sighhhhh.......
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Perspectives
I'm sure you would have heard before that the same quality would elicit different responses or views, and this phenomenon is seen both spatially (i.e. different views formed by different people at the same time) and temporally (i.e. the same person would revise an earlier opinion). One of the NIE lecturers gave an example to explain this point - a girl may fancy a guy's generosity before marriage, but this very same virtue of generosity becomes a vice of profligacy after marriage.
I said this because I have known a colleague who has presented to me different perspectives, and I must say that it has affected my moral compass by a great deal. I'm not sure if you have this experience in your life when you talk to some people and realise that they are immensely principled. You walk away after the talk feeling extremely ruffled, and somewhat disconcerted. Well, that was what happened to me when I got to know Mr O, my colleague.
Mr O teaches Biology and Physics, and as a pre-NIE trainee teacher, we got posted to the same school together with other fun-loving temporary and contemporary teachers, a motley of contract, relief, ESE and practicum teachers. As part of the lunch kakis, we usually lounge in the canteen and chat about mundane stuffs as and when the bell and classes would limit us. One day, Mr O shared with us how he forgot about a test that constituted 20% of the module marks in NUS. Frantic, he emailed the professor, and the professor requested Mr O to call him.
Over the phone, the professor urged Mr O to get an MC. Mr O simply refused as he felt that he had no moral grounds to absolve himself from his foible of forgetfulness. My other colleagues and I were shocked. Trying to stretch him further, I posed him another hypothestical question - Had it been an exam, would you get an MC? His reply - No.
There was something about Mr O and his tone that you knew that he meant what he said. I felt really humbled.... as a man of weaknesses and kiasi-ness, I was brought down by this Monsieur O, who had stood by his principles and practised it. Perhaps, it was because he's a pastor's son, and so he had quite a formidable level of principles. When I asked in another incident, if he would print some school resources for his tuition kids (assuming he has some which hitherto he has none), he replied that it was unethical, and that he wouldn't do it.
It has been a long time since my moral compass has been adjusted. The last I remembered was when I met SL LLG in the army, who with his logical rationcination and religious devoutness, influenced me the way I have lived for the next few years of my life - in dealing with situations, b**chy people and scheming colleagues. Monsieur O really impressed me.
But no, I am still going to take MCs if I need to despite the emulation of the titan. As I argued, it is all a matter of perspectives. SL LLG and I believe in MCs if there are greater utilitarian values to the society, and we don't abuse the system flagrantly, but only at the most urgent state of affairs. But surely, Monsieur O has left me in awe in all sense.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is Mr Y's last day today as he had to report for reservist. Some of us xinjiao teachers decided that we should head to Sakae Sushi for a good buffet. With the exception of one, all of us were ready to flash that NUS/NIE student card to enjoy the discount.
Apparently, Sakae has changed its policy to discriminating the price by age. Alas, we had to pay the "adult" fare, but we gleefully tucked into our food nevertheless. After 3 hours of chatting and crapping, I left the place saying that I need to go jogging to burn off all the food dumped into that bag called stomach.
At 6+ and with quite a bit of a wind, I convinced myself that a short pre-run nap would be sublime. And a "short" one it was. When I woke up, groggy and lethargic, it was 9.15. At this time, I'm supposed to be meeting ZM MMG for the "Red Cliff" movie. Shooting out of bed, I dashed all the way down with that unkempt look, and certainly an apologetic demeanour. We decided to switch to Hellboy 2 as it was scheduled later. Thank goodness I made it on time. The punishing morning schedules of a teacher have begun to crept up onto me these three weeks.
That's Mr P for me.
I said this because I have known a colleague who has presented to me different perspectives, and I must say that it has affected my moral compass by a great deal. I'm not sure if you have this experience in your life when you talk to some people and realise that they are immensely principled. You walk away after the talk feeling extremely ruffled, and somewhat disconcerted. Well, that was what happened to me when I got to know Mr O, my colleague.
Mr O teaches Biology and Physics, and as a pre-NIE trainee teacher, we got posted to the same school together with other fun-loving temporary and contemporary teachers, a motley of contract, relief, ESE and practicum teachers. As part of the lunch kakis, we usually lounge in the canteen and chat about mundane stuffs as and when the bell and classes would limit us. One day, Mr O shared with us how he forgot about a test that constituted 20% of the module marks in NUS. Frantic, he emailed the professor, and the professor requested Mr O to call him.
Over the phone, the professor urged Mr O to get an MC. Mr O simply refused as he felt that he had no moral grounds to absolve himself from his foible of forgetfulness. My other colleagues and I were shocked. Trying to stretch him further, I posed him another hypothestical question - Had it been an exam, would you get an MC? His reply - No.
There was something about Mr O and his tone that you knew that he meant what he said. I felt really humbled.... as a man of weaknesses and kiasi-ness, I was brought down by this Monsieur O, who had stood by his principles and practised it. Perhaps, it was because he's a pastor's son, and so he had quite a formidable level of principles. When I asked in another incident, if he would print some school resources for his tuition kids (assuming he has some which hitherto he has none), he replied that it was unethical, and that he wouldn't do it.
It has been a long time since my moral compass has been adjusted. The last I remembered was when I met SL LLG in the army, who with his logical rationcination and religious devoutness, influenced me the way I have lived for the next few years of my life - in dealing with situations, b**chy people and scheming colleagues. Monsieur O really impressed me.
But no, I am still going to take MCs if I need to despite the emulation of the titan. As I argued, it is all a matter of perspectives. SL LLG and I believe in MCs if there are greater utilitarian values to the society, and we don't abuse the system flagrantly, but only at the most urgent state of affairs. But surely, Monsieur O has left me in awe in all sense.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is Mr Y's last day today as he had to report for reservist. Some of us xinjiao teachers decided that we should head to Sakae Sushi for a good buffet. With the exception of one, all of us were ready to flash that NUS/NIE student card to enjoy the discount.
Apparently, Sakae has changed its policy to discriminating the price by age. Alas, we had to pay the "adult" fare, but we gleefully tucked into our food nevertheless. After 3 hours of chatting and crapping, I left the place saying that I need to go jogging to burn off all the food dumped into that bag called stomach.
At 6+ and with quite a bit of a wind, I convinced myself that a short pre-run nap would be sublime. And a "short" one it was. When I woke up, groggy and lethargic, it was 9.15. At this time, I'm supposed to be meeting ZM MMG for the "Red Cliff" movie. Shooting out of bed, I dashed all the way down with that unkempt look, and certainly an apologetic demeanour. We decided to switch to Hellboy 2 as it was scheduled later. Thank goodness I made it on time. The punishing morning schedules of a teacher have begun to crept up onto me these three weeks.
That's Mr P for me.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
"Chak-ba-lang" (Miscellaneous)
Some snippets about me in past one week including today:
(1) Coughing quite badly. Mum has been quite concerned and reminded me to take cough syrup. That's the best part about Mum!
(2) Watched Hancock with ZH HHG on Friday night. Jon is overseas and my friends all have appointment. Damn xian... Hancock only so so. I wanna watch Kungfu Panda!!!
(3) Met my supervisor who asked me to revise my first draft. Got lotsa things to settle now liao..
(4) Did not go vegetarian despite being the "chu yi" (first on the lunar calendar). Cos in school and I forgot. Ordered Nasi Lemak and commented how good (and cheap) it was, then realised. Diaozzz...
(5) Attended wedding dinner at Laguna Country Club of a secondary cum JC friend. It was kind of special cos my friend and his wife registered their wedding a year ago, and they even have a daughter!! So today we see the couple AND her baby daughter. Interesting hor. And that ML LLG had to call me to say he forgot about the dinner, and said he's not coming.
(6) Returned some books to National Library only to realise I owe them about 2 dollar fine. Then borrowed some Japan travel guide book. Cant wait to go Japan with SL LLG and he said that his colleagues told him Agnes B briefcase very cheap there.
(7) Arthur the Medan boy returned to Singapore for a short while, so we met up other friends at Borders bistro. Order high tea set, and it's about $10 for any cake selection and coffee/tea. Very oishii desu ne, and reasonable price too cos the coffee is free flowing. I tried to exploit this by asking if I can change coffee to Earl Grey for second round and they agreed. WOW.
(8) Went for massage at People's Park. This masseuse start to do head massage for me = hair trauma. I felt I had just came out of a radioactive centre when some of my hair strands came off!! OMG. But the untying of stiff knots on my stiff shoulders was just too shiok.
(9) Another hair-raising (but not hair dropping) experience. Watched Incredible Tales last Sunay about how this demon actually eats unborn fetus in the Philippines. Got a twist in the story when it turned out that the pregnant woman did not get attacked, but rather it was her slim friend who just conceived. Scary siah.... It's on very Sunday 10 pm channel 5.
(1) Coughing quite badly. Mum has been quite concerned and reminded me to take cough syrup. That's the best part about Mum!
(2) Watched Hancock with ZH HHG on Friday night. Jon is overseas and my friends all have appointment. Damn xian... Hancock only so so. I wanna watch Kungfu Panda!!!
(3) Met my supervisor who asked me to revise my first draft. Got lotsa things to settle now liao..
(4) Did not go vegetarian despite being the "chu yi" (first on the lunar calendar). Cos in school and I forgot. Ordered Nasi Lemak and commented how good (and cheap) it was, then realised. Diaozzz...
(5) Attended wedding dinner at Laguna Country Club of a secondary cum JC friend. It was kind of special cos my friend and his wife registered their wedding a year ago, and they even have a daughter!! So today we see the couple AND her baby daughter. Interesting hor. And that ML LLG had to call me to say he forgot about the dinner, and said he's not coming.
(6) Returned some books to National Library only to realise I owe them about 2 dollar fine. Then borrowed some Japan travel guide book. Cant wait to go Japan with SL LLG and he said that his colleagues told him Agnes B briefcase very cheap there.
(7) Arthur the Medan boy returned to Singapore for a short while, so we met up other friends at Borders bistro. Order high tea set, and it's about $10 for any cake selection and coffee/tea. Very oishii desu ne, and reasonable price too cos the coffee is free flowing. I tried to exploit this by asking if I can change coffee to Earl Grey for second round and they agreed. WOW.
(8) Went for massage at People's Park. This masseuse start to do head massage for me = hair trauma. I felt I had just came out of a radioactive centre when some of my hair strands came off!! OMG. But the untying of stiff knots on my stiff shoulders was just too shiok.
(9) Another hair-raising (but not hair dropping) experience. Watched Incredible Tales last Sunay about how this demon actually eats unborn fetus in the Philippines. Got a twist in the story when it turned out that the pregnant woman did not get attacked, but rather it was her slim friend who just conceived. Scary siah.... It's on very Sunday 10 pm channel 5.
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